Stanford Social Innovation Review

With the economy in turmoil, funders are increasingly pressuring nonprofits to merge. Yet mergers are not always the right path for nonprofits in financial distress. For a healthier nonprofit sector, funders should consider a wider variety of partnership options.

When it comes to job interviews, presentation tactics—appearance, gestures, postures, flattery, and self-promotion—go farther than you think

In the time it takes to update your Facebook page, you could be making the world a slightly better place

SWITCH: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

How funders can help grantees track their progress more effectively

Improving the lives of disadvantaged populations—whether through better schools, after-school programs, or teen pregnancy prevention clinics—requires proven theories of change. The very development of a field depends on their diffusion, replication, critique, and modification. Yet some organizations refuse to articulate a theory of change and some funders think it would be intrusive to demand that they do so. The interests of all concerned are served by a developmental approach to creating and evaluating theories of change

“By paying so much attention to managing their own risks, philanthropists are no longer attending to the marginalized people who risk so much to make change happen,” says Sheela Patel in this First Person.

Recessions are not sprints; they are endurance events. Find out how nonprofits are faring during the toughest recession in more than 30 years and learn the seven healthy habits of nonprofits that endure.

In recent decades, nonprofits have significantly increased the size of their endowments. Yet during the current economic crisis, they made scant use of their sizable holdings. Instead of drawing down their endowments to offset losses of income, nonprofits resorted to cutting programs and personnel, sometimes dramatically. To prepare for future financial downturns, nonprofits should treat endowments as rainy day funds, not cut programs to preserve the endowment.

Designers have traditionally focused on enhancing the look and functionality of products.  Recently, they have begun using design tools to tackle more complex problems, such as finding ways to provide low-cost healthcare throughout the world.  Businesses were first to embrace this new approach—called design thinking—now nonprofits are beginning to adopt it too.